


A Good Word

by Leni



Series: Enter The Fairy [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background Rumbelle, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-27
Updated: 2017-03-27
Packaged: 2018-10-11 13:06:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10465719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leni/pseuds/Leni
Summary: Belle meets Rumpelstiltskin's son for the first time.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Belle & Baelfire, history

Try as she might, Belle still couldn't conceive that the boy Rumpelstiltskin had brought to the castle the day before was really his son. There was no resemblance in their features, though that might become visible once Rumpelstiltskin rid himself of his curse; but what confused her was their opposite behaviors.

She couldn't imagine Rumpelstiltskin lying down quietly in a room, accompanied by a single candle and seemingly doing nothing but to stare at the ceiling. The hours at the spinning wheel were the most restive Rumpelstiltskin ever allowed himself to be. Otherwise he was a flurry of words and mannerisms, always alert to his surroundings and constantly looking for a new distraction. 

His son, on the other hand, wouldn't even bother to acknowledge her entrance.

"Hello," she called loudly, as though she believed him asleep. "Baelfire, right?"

He shot upright, eyes wide in the candlelight. "Who are you?"

"I'm Belle." She had always been told that she had a friendly smile, but the boy only seemed to grow more restless. "I live here. I'm your father's - um." Perhaps it wasn't the right moment for a complete introduction. Instead she showed him the set of towels and fresh linens she had put together as an excuse to visit. "I'm the maid," she said brightly, moving forward with the intention to set her burden on one of the chairs.

She did not expect the boy to jump from the bed and grab onto her wrist urgently. "Quick," he whispered. "I will lead you out."

"What?"

"Don't worry about me. The Dark One won't harm me."

Belle felt her eyes widen. The last time she had seen someone as terrified of what Rumpelstiltskin might do, Regina's father had been carrying his daughter away from the main hall, looking over his shoulder with each step, the look on his face loudly stating that he expected Rumpelstiltskin to throw one last fireball.

To see Rumpelstiltskin's son wear the same expression shook her.

"No!" she yelped, digging in her feet when the boy kept tugging at her. Towels and sheets fell around them, but neither paid it any mind. "No. It's okay. It's all right, Baelfire!"

"No, it's not," he ground out. "You can't trust him! Don't you know what happened to our last maid?"

Belle didn't know, but she could guess. There was a reason Rumpelstiltskin's reputation spoke of him as the darkest of souls. History books told of villages lost where the Dark One passed, of horrors too great to be put in writing. Rumpelstiltskin might not have done any of that, but he'd inherited the power and title of those who had. He had confessed to her, once, that it had been Baelfire's absence that had jolted him out from that path of unadulterated evil. Recovering his son had absorbed his mind into a goal different from what his curse demanded of him.

But the boy had seen the worst of him.

Belle shuddered, her imagination alone providing blood-curling scenarios of what Rumpelstiltskin could do if he wouldn't check himself. He had been on the verge of sentencing a man to death just for stealing from the Dark Castle, and she still had nightmares about Regina's last visit.

His temper was a dangerous creature when roused, and Belle knew how much it cost him to keep it under a leash.

He could lay waste to the whole of their land. The same power that could kill an army of ogres in a moment would be unstoppable if turned against defenseless villagers.

Her heart broke at the realization that, far from believing that Rumpelstiltskin was a good man under the weight of that monstrous curse, Rumpelstiltskin's son expected the worst from him.

"He's never harmed me," she told him, and at the uncomprehending look he gave her, she stressed, "Never. Not once."

The boy shook his head. "He will." Then, in a lower voice. "He can't help himself."

Belle wondered how terrifying Neverland must be, when Baelfire had chosen to return with a father he couldn't trust. No wonder Rumpelstiltskin had shut himself off in the laboratory tower, if the son he'd risked so much to rescue had received him with such bitter animosity.

"Baelfire," she said, taking his hands and, when he didn't resist, leading him back to sit on the bed. "Has Rumple--- I mean, has your father done anything to scare you?"

"That's not my father!"

Belle snorted, but kept her peace. "Has he, or hasn't he?"

Mulishly, he grumbled a negative.

"Then, maybe, you can give him the benefit of the doubt?"

Belle finally glimpsed a similarity between father and son: their despise for a well-meant suggestion needed no words when they could glower like that.

"Fine," she said, standing to her feet and glowering right back. There would be no getting through the boy while he was in a bad mood. Like father, like son, indeed. She could hope that, like with Rumpelstiltskin, a nice meal would improve matters. "I'll bring dinner now that I know you're awake. You must be starving."

That got her a reluctant nod.

Belle smiled. "I have some rabbit stew." She didn't mention that it was Rumpelstiltskin who had mentioned what his son's favorite meal was. "Will that be all right?"

Baelfire nodded again, but his gaze grew troubled as Belle walked toward the door, as if he were unsure he would ever see her again.

"I've been here for years, Baelfire," Belle reminded him. "The worst that's ever happened to me was falling off a ladder, and your father was there to catch me. There's no safer place than under his roof."

That had been meant as a reassurance, but the boy winced at her words. "I remember his protection," he said, his expression darkening with old memories.

_Oh, Rumple,_ Belle thought.

She knew of parents who drowned their children in their good intentions. She could easily imagine how stifled this boy would have felt, when his father had an unending well of magic to enforce his rules.

"You've been gone for so long, Baelfire," she told him, unable to stay quiet on this point. "People change. _Fathers_ change too. Perhaps if you gave him a chance?"

He jerked his head away.

Belle let out a small sigh. "Just think about it. Please."

She was opening the door when the boy spoke again.

"What has he promised you?" Then, with a hint of confusion, "Why would you agree to speaking on his behalf?"

"He has no idea I've come to see you," Belle told him. "I'm not under any orders."

"Then _why_?"

Because no one else would say something positive about Rumpelstiltskin. Because the rest of the world thought of him as the Dark One and nothing more. Because she had seen him tear himself apart in his efforts to go fetch his son, and all despite the possibility of facing the demon who controlled Neverland.

Because she had waited for three days and three nights for the portal to reappear, and known that if Rumpelstiltskin hadn't been able to fiddle with the Hat's magic and could only send one person back, it would be his son who returned.

Because she loved him, and she would have understood his choice even as she mourned him.

Because she had never been happier than when she saw him again.

"Because he deserves someone who will fight for him."

The boy stared at her in disbelief. 

Belle smiled.

Her answer had piqued his curiosity. Sooner or later he would want to know more.

Dinner first, she decided, stepping into the hallway and closing the door softly behind her. On a full stomach, the boy would be more likely to listen as she told him about the Rumpelstiltskin she knew.

 

The End  
27/03/17


End file.
